Protecting Politics: Deterring the Influence of Organized Crime On
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Protecting Politics Deterring the Influence of Organized Crime on Public Service Delivery Protecting Politics: Deterring the Influence of Organized Crime on Public Service Delivery The relationship between organized crime and politics around the world has become akin to symbiotic. The self-interested complicity between political actors and organized criminal networks is undermining the most basic compact between citizens and the state, and in the worst of cases has caused massive human insecurity. Public goods comprise a core element of this social contract. In turn, service delivery is an integral part of the citizen–state relationship. This report explores how and why organized crime becomes involved in service delivery, and how this affects the relationships between the state and citizens. It draws on a wide range of examples to illustrate some of the ways in which organized crime has captured service delivery in different parts of the world. Case studies from Afghanistan, Colombia and Somalia illustrate organized crime’s engagement in service delivery. International IDEA Global Initiative against ISBN 978-91-7671-067-8 Strömsborg Transnational Organized Crime SE-103 34 Stockholm WMO Building, 2nd Floor Sweden 7bis Avenue de la Paix T +46 8 698 37 00 Geneva, CH-1211 F +46 8 20 24 22 Switzerland [email protected] [email protected] 9 789176 710678 > www.idea.int www.globalinitiative.net ISBN: 978-91-7671-067-8 Protecting Politics Deterring the Influence of Organized Crime on Public Service Delivery Protecting Politics Deterring the Influence of Organized Crime on Public Service Delivery Series editor: Catalina Uribe Burcher Lead authors: Tuesday Reitano and Marcena Hunter Contributors: Catalina Perdomo and Adam Rodriques © 2016 International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance © 2016 Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime International IDEA Strömsborg SE-103 34 Stockholm Sweden Tel: +46 8 698 37 00, fax: +46 8 20 24 22 Email: [email protected], website: www.idea.int Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime WMO Building, 2nd Floor 7bis Avenue de la Paix Geneva, CH-1211 Switzerland Email: [email protected], website: www.globalinitiative.net The electronic version of this publication is available under a Creative Commons Attribute-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 licence. You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the publication as well as to remix and adapt it provided it is only for non-commercial purposes, that you appropriately attribute the publication, and that you distribute it under an identical licence. For more information on this licence see: <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/>. International IDEA publications are independent of specific national or political interests. Views expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent the views of International IDEA or the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, or those of their respective Boards and Council members. Cover photograph: ‘A young resident of Maslakh Camp [Afghanistan] takes a drink of water’ (UN Photo/ Eskinder Debebe), made available under a Creative Commons licence (CC-BY-NC-ND-2.0) Graphic design by Santángelo Diseño ISBN: 978-91-7671-067-8 Contents Preface ........................................................................................................................................ 7 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. 9 Chapter 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 10 Chapter 2 Service delivery ..................................................................................................................... 14 Motives for organized crime groups to act as service providers ...................... 16 Entry points and invitations ....................................................................................... 17 Chapter 3 Service provision .................................................................................................................. 24 Security .............................................................................................................................. 25 Livelihood options and other public services ........................................................ 27 Chapter 4 Case study: Afghanistan ................................................................................................... 28 Afghans’ expectations of state service delivery ..................................................... 30 Public service delivery in Afghanistan ..................................................................... 31 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 33 Chapter 5 Case study: Colombia ......................................................................................................... 34 The impact of organized crime on service delivery ............................................. 36 The impact of organized crime on accountability processes ............................ 38 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 39 International IDEA / Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime 5 Chapter 6 Case study: Somalia ............................................................................................................ 40 The withdrawal of the state ......................................................................................... 41 Al-Shabaab: stability and governance reinforced by fear .................................. 42 But is it organized crime? ............................................................................................. 44 A shifting balance ........................................................................................................... 45 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 46 Chapter 7 Conclusions and recommendations ............................................................................ 48 References ................................................................................................................................ 52 About the authors ................................................................................................................. 62 About the organizations ................................................................................................... 64 6 International IDEA / Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime Preface Public service delivery is one of the main tasks citizens expect from their governments. Democracy is a political system that should improve service delivery as it offers the building blocks for equitable resource distribution and sustainable development. Indeed, in the frameworks of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the democratic principles of transparency and accountability play a key role in the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. However, in many contexts, public service delivery is fraught with corrupt practices, leading to less accountable and less effective public services that are not adequately reaching those they are intended to serve. Particularly in fragile and conflict affected states, corrupt practices can sometimes be linked to organized crime. These illicit groups and networks increasingly form parallel structures that compete with the state to provide services, either in open conflict with the state, or sometimes working with the explicit or tacit agreement of the authorities. In other cases, however, organized crime does not become a service provider but instead hinders the state’s provision of services by leeching off state resources through corruption in public contracts. In all of these cases, organized crime perpetuates poverty and inequality, while threatening economic growth and, by extension, democracy itself. Furthermore, organized crime challenges the state’s legitimacy by profiling itself as a viable provider of services to the population, while the state’s capacity to provide services is undermined. Citizens are consequently left with hollow democratic state institutions that are not capable of delivering better lives for them. Growing discontent with politics, as reflected in a number of public perceptions surveys and massive protests around the world, are important wakeup calls to implement serious strategies to prevent and mitigate political corruption linked to organized crime. The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) and the Global Initiative against Transnational International IDEA / Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime 7 Organized Crime (GI) are therefore committed to supporting countries around the world in addressing the threat that organized crime poses to their democracies. Understanding how organized crime challenges the state’s legitimacy as public service provider is therefore one important contribution to these efforts. That is why, in 2011, International IDEA launched the Protecting Politics project, conducting research and providing policy support to tackle the nexus between organized crime and political actors. Most importantly, in 2015 International IDEA joined forces